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Jace Fry -- the Sunday starter for most of the season -- is expected to take the mound Friday when Oregon State opens Corvallis Regional play against North Dakota State.
(than Erickson/Oregon State University)

CORVALLIS — Pat Casey stood inside the Oregon State dugout at Goss Stadium earlier this week and pondered the late shuffling of his weekend pitching rotation.

"I don't know how it happened that way," the Beavers coach said.

He backtracked.

"Well, I know how that happened."

Ben Wetzler's May 10 arrest and subsequent five-game suspension pushed him out of the Friday slot for the final two weeks of the regular season. Against Washington, the Beavers started Andrew Moore on Friday, recently crowned Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year Jace Fry on Saturday and Wetzler on Sunday. Against USC, the Beavers went Fry-Wetzler-Moore.

That most recent combo now appears to be the new normal for OSU, as the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA baseball tournament opens Corvallis Regional play Friday night against North Dakota State.

That rotation decision could impact the Beavers for the rest of the postseason, including a potential run through the College World Series. Yet right now, Casey is not concerned with which pitcher takes the mound on a specific day.

He's comfortable with all three, because he believes he has three aces.

"For me, it doesn't matter," Casey said. "In this particular case, if we choose to go with Fry, it would only be because he had one more day's rest."

Casey entertained a suggestion that the Beavers, should they advance out of this weekend's regional, could keep the Fry-Wetzler-Moore order for super regionals then, hypothetically, start Wetzler for OSU's first game in Omaha.

It depends on how many pitches are thrown during regionals and super regionals. Casey was mindful of workload on the last day of the regular season, when he told Moore he would throw 75 pitches or five innings against USC in order to keep him as an option for this Friday's start. Additionally, pitching coach Nate Yeskie has supervised practice habits that keep all of his starters' arms in prime physical condition, which allow them to move up a day when needed.

Not to mention, intense competitiveness oozes out of each member of the trio. Particularly Wetzler, a senior, and Fry, who appears bound for the pros after this season.

"That's been the beauty of those guys," Yeskie said, "and a big reason as to why they've been in the rotation is their mentality. There's lots of guys around the country with good stuff. There's some of them that don't even pitch, and it's because of their mentality, or lack thereof.

"The mentality of those guys, they're bulldogs ... they seem to really push one another, and I don't have to work to motivate those guys. They have goals set in front of themselves and they have competitions with one another to see if they can one-up each other."

During super regionals, Beavers closer Max Engelbrekt went down with a back injury. That forced Matt Boyd into relief duty in that series, which then forced Moore to start OSU's first College World Series game against Mississippi State. Additionally, a rainout that postponed North Carolina's Super Regional and a flipped bracket also altered the schedule in Omaha.

"It changed the whole dynamic," Yeskie recalled.

For now, though, Yeskie is only concerned with "what we can control." That's this weekend's regional.

And Fry understands his responsibility in taking the ball first.

"We need to win that first one and get a little momentum going," he said. "You never want to be on the back end of a regional."